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Thursday, 31 March 2011

Beetroot and Quinoa Burgers

TheseBeetroot and Quinoa burgers were good. Ticked the three boxes for me: Looks, texture and flavour. The taste of these burgers reminded me somewhat of onion rings, but enhanced further with earthy beetroot and the surprise crisp pop of quinoa bursting in your mouth.

The last time I cookedQuinoa for D he disliked it, this time he had a completely different attitude. He actually praised this deep maroon burger and declared it Delicious - high praise indeed.

If you don’t have Quinoa in your home and I can perfectly understand why you may not have some, as Quinoa is not an ingredient that frequents my home either. I had some left over from the spicedQuinoa and chickpea salad from last year, the point I am trying to make is that the Quinoa in this recipe can easily be substituted with bulgur wheat, couscous or even brown rice. The original recipe also specified two eggs, I was debating in my head whether to add the eggs or not, as the Beetroot-Quinoa mixture held well when shaped into a burger, but I went ahead and made it with one egg. I do think you could try making these without eggs making it suitable for vegans.

When the Quinoa has cooled down add to the bowl along with the egg. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Leave the mixture to rest for a while. When ready to eat, divide the mixture into 6 – 8 burger shapes or small patties and fry in a hot frying pan with oil and press them gently whilst cooking. Cook for about 4 – 5 minutes on each side until brown and crisp. Adapted from Vegetarian with a Vengeance.

Yes I know what some of you are thinking; Is this book riding on the success of 'Vegan with a Vengeance'. I've read that 'Vegetarian with a Vengeance' was originally written in Danish and the original Danish title of the book was Vegetarisk Vellyst, which translates as 'Vegetarian Delights'. However the publishers in the U.K made the decision to market the book with a different title knowing it would attract the attention of the veg(etari)an and non-vegetarian home cooks. What I will say is, if the title and cover of the book encourages people to pick it up (and lets be honest about this, it often does), even better if its a vegetable based cookbook and gets people to reflect on their lifestyle habits and incorporate more vegetables in their diet, well that can only be a good thing, don't you think?!. I think its also important not to lose sight of the passion of the authors of the book Tina Scheftelowitz, a well-reputed food columnist and writer of a handful of cookbooks, including the Danish bestselling cookery series 'Superlicious Cookbooks' and Christine Bille Nielsen, a chef and nutrition economist, both of whom should be respected in their own rights.

I will be trying this recipe, I love veggie burgers and we have Quinoa readily available in our stores. The rinse water from the grains is loaded with bitter tasting saponins, and I pour that over my veggies to deter insects from eating them.

I've enjoyed visiting your blog and love that you have so many great recipes for soups (my favorite). These quinoa burgers sound delicious especially since they taste like onion rings! You can't beat that! Yum!

Definitiely one to try while I'm eating my way through the store cupboard, I know there's some Quinoa in there somewhere. Do you think I'd get away with pickled beetroot, I don't have any raw stuff at the moment?

The celeriac soup sounds delicious,will try that. I'm not yet a quinoa convert, having tried it last year. But I'm thinking maybe I didn't do it justice so am determined to try again, I might even try growing some,REal Seeds have several varieties listed, apparently it grow perfectly well in uk gardens, and even if i don't eat it, the chickens certainly will!

quinoa is quite an acquired taste isn't it. It's sometimes recommended as a more nutritious/lower carb alternative to rice but I find it a bit bland on it's own. I can see why D might have changed his mind with these burgers packed full of flavour from the beets and spices.

Well now, I can always count on you to tempt me with a delicious veggie burger recipe. As you know, I'm in search for the ultimate. I have a hunch that beetroot will be involved, and I loooove the texture of quinoa.

About Me

A Welsh Vegetarian Blog: showing the versatility of vegetables by sharing and creating delicious platefuls of food inspired by the many diverse 'ethnic' world cuisines from sweet to savoury!
I have over 1000 vegetarian and vegan recipes. Please explore my culinary blog space.